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. 2017 Mar 14;12(3):e0173491.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173491. eCollection 2017.

High risk of developing subsequent epilepsy in patients with sleep-disordered breathing

Tomor Harnod  1   2 , Yu-Chiao Wang  3   4 , Cheng-Li Lin  3   4 , Chun-Hung Tseng  5   6
Affiliations

High risk of developing subsequent epilepsy in patients with sleep-disordered breathing

Tomor Harnod et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Purpose: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is often associated with other medical disorders. Whether SDB interacts with other factors for developing subsequent epilepsy remains unclear.

Methods: This population-based cohort study was conducted using the National Health Insurance Research Database of Taiwan. Patients aged >20 years and diagnosed with SDB between 2000 and 2010 comprised the SDB cohort (n = 138,507), and their data were compared with those of the comparison cohort (n = 138,507). The adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for epilepsy was calculated using a multivariate Cox proportional hazards model.

Results: The SDB cohort had an increased risk of epilepsy (aHR = 1.50, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.36-1.66). The sex-stratified analysis revealed a significant adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) for epilepsy with a 1.51-fold higher risk for female patients, and also a significantly 1.49-fold higher risk for male patients in the SDB cohort. Although epilepsy incidence increased with age in both cohorts, different age groups in the SDB cohort all had a significantly higher risk of developing epilepsy than comparison cohort.

Conclusion: This population-based cohort study indicates that patients with SDB are at a high risk of developing subsequent epilepsy, in both sexes and all age groups.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Cumulative incidence of epilepsy in the sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) (dashed line) and the comparison (solid line) cohorts.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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